A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of extracting a useful component from microbial cells. More specifically, microbial cells are disrupted during one or more stages of high-pressure multi-stage homogenization, and said disrupted cells are contacted with solvent during one or more remaining stages of the homogenization to extract a useful component.
B. Description of the Prior Art
As a method of extracting useful components from microbial cells, it has been known that extraction of useful components can be carried out by treating a mixture of microbial cells and an extracting solvent in a homogenizer to disrupt a cell wall and a cell membrane and extract useful components from the disrupted cells. It has also been known to disrupt microbial cells in the homogenizer and then extract useful components from the disrupted cells with extracting solvent in an agitation vessel.
However, in the former method efficiency of disruption of the cell wall and the cell membrane is often lowered by the presence of solvent. The latter method is disadvantageous for practical applications, since it requires a large agitation vessel, resulting in high operating costs.